


The Arrow Necklace

by solrosan



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Arrow Necklace, Aunt Natasha Romanov, Avengers: Age of Ultron (Movie), Backstory, Friendship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-28
Updated: 2015-04-28
Packaged: 2018-03-26 05:35:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,952
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3839029
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/solrosan/pseuds/solrosan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The history of who gave Natasha the arrow necklace, and where it was during the events of <i>Age of Ultron</i>.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Written with the love and support of [spectralarchers](http://archiveofourown.org/users/skyfallat221b/).

Natasha did her best to not make a sound as she opened the door to the Barton residence. She was completely wrung out, otherwise she wouldn’t have come here. No matter what Clint said, stopping by was a risk for his family, and she wasn’t taken that lightly. The dark came fast at this time of year, and she frowned at the fact that the door was unlocked. She had to talk to Laura about that. To not exist on any records didn’t mean you could let your guard down completely and be foolish about—

“Auntie Nat!”

Lila came running from the kitchen, throwing herself at Natasha as soon as she stepped into the house. Surprised, Natasha put on a smile, crouching down to catch the little tornado in her arms. 

“What are you doing up at this hour?” she asked, lifting up the five year old girl.

“Mom said I could stay up until you got here,” said Lila.

“She did, did she?” Natasha looked over at Laura who also came from the kitchen to greet her. 

“ _Someone_ let it slip last time he was home that you might stop by on your way back,” Laura said, smiling. “So I couldn’t very well not tell her when you called yesterday.”

“ _Someone_ has a big mouth,” said Natasha, turning her attention back to the girl. “You’ve grown. Next time I come, I don’t think I’ll be able to pick you up.”

Lila grinned. “I have a present for you!”

“Let Aunt Nat come in and take off her jacket first, sweetie,” said Laura.

“It’s okay,” Natasha said, giving Lila a kiss on the cheek. “It was a long time since I had this sort of welcome.”

She put the girl down, and Natasha and Laura watched her run up the stairs to get the present. As soon as Lila was out of sight, Natasha let the smile drop and she exhaled slowly. Laura’s hand was on her arm immediately. 

“God, are you okay?” she half-whispered.

“I’m fine,” Natasha said, putting on a different, more reassuring smile. “I just need a bed.”

“Don’t you try that on me; Clint does the same.”

Natasha hesitated, but before she said anything there were footsteps on the stairs and she let her face light up again as Lila joined them again.

“I wrapped it myself.” Lila held out a small present, wrapped in green paper with white dots. It wasn’t a very pretty wrapping, and she had used far too much tape, but it was absolutely perfect.

“Thank you,” Natasha said as she took it. 

“Open it.” Lila all but bounced. “You can open it now.”

“Let’s go and sit down in the kitchen,” Laura suggested, ruffling Lila’s hair. “We can let Aunt Nat taste the chocolate chip cookies you made. Can you take them out of the pantry?”

Lila ran into the kitchen and they could hear her pull up a chair and climb onto it. 

“We’ll talk about the other things later,” Laura said, still with her hand on Natasha’s arm. “There’s a bed made up, and it’s yours for as long as you want it.”

With that Laura left to put on coffee and make sure Lila didn’t fall and hurt herself. Natasha was left standing surprised and amazed in the hall with the present in her hand, staring. She definitely needed to talk to them about the lock.

* * *

About fifteen minutes later they all sat around the kitchen table. Lila had pulled her chair up as close to Natasha’s as possible, and was almost sitting in her lap. Laura had called down Cooper as well, who had given Natasha almost as warm a welcome as Lila. 

Natasha was, to say the least, a bit overwhelmed. This was almost as the welcomes she had seen Clint receive the times they had come here together.

“Now open it,” Lila prompted, putting the present right in front of Natasha’s coffee mug.

“You didn’t have to get me a present,” said Natasha. “I didn’t get you anything.”

“You didn’t have a birthday party because you were working, so you get it now,” said Lila, not taking her eyes off Natasha’s hands as they worked on the vast amounts of tape. Natasha glanced at Laura who looked a bit sheepish.

_We made one up_ , Laura mouthed. 

Natasha smiled, it was all fine. That Natasha didn’t know when she was born, and that the only anniversary in her life that anyone had ever acknowledge was her graduation, wasn’t something you told children when they asked about mundane things like birthdays.

Inside the green wrapping paper was a small box – the kind you got when you bought jewellery. Natasha opened it slowly, almost expecting something nasty to jump out at her. 

“It’s an arrow,” Lila said, happily before Natasha really saw what it was. “Like the ones daddy uses on the bad guys. He can’t have a necklace because he’s a boy, but you’re like daddy and fight the bad guys too, so you can have it! Even if you kick them in the butt.”

Natasha nodded, listening to the girl twitter on about her and Clint and bad guys and fighting. Her mouth stayed slightly opened, and she reached out a finger to touch the small, sliver arrow on its silver chain. 

“Auntie Nat?” Lila said, more quietly, tilting her head so that she was almost face to face with her. “Don’t you like it?”

“I love it,” said Natasha. She put a hand on Lila’s cheek. “Thank you. Will you help me put it on?”

Lila beamed at her. She made it so easy to smile back, and together they managed to get the necklace around Natasha’s neck. The rest of evening, as Cooper told her about his computer games and Lila dragged her off to show their hamsters (while Laura tried to get them both to bed), Natasha kept fiddling with the small arrow.

* * *

“When’s my birthday?” Natasha asked, sitting on the bed in the guestroom, when Laura came to give her one of Clint’s old t-shirts to sleep in. 

It had been close to impossible to get the kids to bed, but now they were both asleep and Natasha was just about to fall over herself. Laura seemed to notice and didn’t ask any questions.

“I’m sorry about that,” said Laura, frowning a bit. “She was just starting to figure out dates and things like that. We had to tell her something.”

“No, it’s okay,” Natasha said. “I just want to know when I can be mad at Clint for not bringing me cake.”

Laura smirked. “November 22nd.”

“I always thought I was born in the winter.”

“Now you are.”

Natasha smiled, thanking Laura for the t-shirt and for taking her in like this. Perhaps also for giving her a birthday, even if no one outside this house would ever know about it.

When she finally got to lay her head down on the soft pillow, her hand went to the tiny arrow around her neck again. She had probably never felt as welcomed, as at home, or as loved, as she did right there and then.


	2. Chapter 2

Natasha knocked on the door to the Barton resident. It was unlocked as always, but she had stopped nagging them about that. It was no use, it seemed. Under other circumstances, she would have just stepped inside, but now she was here to pick up Clint for a mission – the Avengers were going to Sokovia where they had located an active HYDRA base. After New York Natasha had done a lot of covering for Clint to keep everyone from the Bartons’ doorstep, taking a few missions Clint should probably have done instead of her. She couldn’t do that anymore, not when they all were supposed to be there.

The least she could do was to wait to be invited in.

“Nat!” Clint greeted her as he opened the door, smiling widely for a split second before he noticed her expression and he became serious again.

“I’m here to collect you,” she said. 

“It’s good to see you, anyway,” he said, pulling her into a hug. “But you’re going to be the one telling Laura.”

“Chicken,” she muttered, hugging him tighter. She hadn’t quite realised how much she had missed him until then.

* * *

Natasha knocked on the door to Lila’s room. “Lila, can I come in?”

“Go. Away.”

“Your dad and I are leaving soon, are you sure you don’t want to come down and give him a hug goodbye?”

“Yes.”

Natasha opened the door. Lila was sitting on the floor, her back against the bed and her knees pulled up to her face. This was the first time Clint was leaving when the girl had been old enough to understand what that really meant. Natasha had asked if she could have a go at talking to Lila, and her parents had gladly let her.

She sat down on the floor next to Lila. 

“I’m sorry I’m taking your dad,” Natasha said. “But we need to go and help some of our friends fight the bad guys.”

“What are you going to do?” Lila asked, her words muffled into her arms and knees.

“It’s a secret. I would tell you, but that could put you and Cooper and your mom in danger. And I don’t want that.”

Lila looked up at her. “Aren’t you and dad going to be in danger?”

“A bit, but we’re used to it,” said Natasha. She reached around her neck and took off her arrow necklace. Then she held it out to Lila. 

“Keep this safe for me until we come back,” she said. “And whenever you’re worried about your dad, or you miss him, you can wear it, and he’ll be a little bit closer.”

Lila reached out and took the neckless. She stroked the arrow with her fingers. “Can I wear it when I miss you too?”

“Of course you can,” Natasha said, wrapping one arm around her and pulling her into a half-hug. “Should I help you put it on right now?”

Lila nodded. She gave Natasha back the necklace and held up her hair. Natasha couldn’t believe her fingers trembled slightly as she put the silver chain around the girl’s neck.

“There,” Natasha said. “All done.”

Lila looked down on the necklace, then she threw herself at Natasha and hugged her tightly. 

“Don’t worry,” Natasha whispered in her ear. “Your dad and I, we’ll look after each other. Can you look after Cooper and your mom until we get back?”

Lila nodded. 

“That’s my little warrior,” Natasha said. “Now let’s go downstairs and give your dad a big hug.”

* * *

“You’re quiet,” Clint said when they had driven for about half an hour.

“Am I?” Natasha kept staring out the window.

“Yes.”

Natasha tore her eyes from the dark landscape they were driving through to look at him. “Laura told me she’s pregnant.”

Clint smiled a crooked smile. “Yeah, she told me she had.”

“Sometimes I envy you for having them,” she said. “But now, leaving them? I don’t envy that. I don't understand how you do that again and again.”

“It’s the best kind of hell,” Clint admitted. “I saw Lila’s necklace, by the way.”

“What?”

Clint gave her a quick glance. “I’m just saying, don’t kid yourself, Romanoff, you have them too.”

Natasha punched him in the arm, making him chuckle. She turned back to looking out the window, and her hand went searching for the necklace she didn’t have anymore. Though she missed it, it didn’t feel like much of a loss if it made Lila feel better.

Perhaps Clint was right, perhaps she had them too.


End file.
